This book addresses fly fishing (species, tackle, locations) along the Southeastern coast of the US, from North Carolina through Key West. I included it in this forum because there are many species present throughout this range, from stripers to bluefish to bones to you name it, which I believe falls under the guise of "Coastal Gamefish".
I picked this book up a few months ago, after my last trip to the Keys, just as some light reading during the Winter. Finally got around to reading it this past week in the evenings, and I must say I wish I still had the receipt to this book; it's awful. I've lived along the Southeastern coast of the US since 1993, have fished many places along that stretch, and feel like I have a pretty good handle on the entire in-shore ecology and fishing in this "region". What I read in this book was, frankly, upsetting, particularly in the sense that apparently the publisher never bothered to verify much of the author's information prior to putting it into print. I realize that verifying fishing tales is a pretty tall order, however at the very least the book could have been a bit more geographically accurate: I found several locations referred to incorrectly both in text and on maps, and a simple check process on any map would have cleared that up. Furthermore, I question whether or not the author has fished all of the places listed in the text and claimed to be so productive, since I found many of them, in the Keys particularly, to be nonexistent in general. Directions to some specific areas were befuddling, and if you can't clearly convey to a reader just where a certain spot is or how to reach it, why include it in such a text?
To exacerbate the problems I found, the sections covering tackle selection were quite badly written, seemingly with sentences out of place; if this book happens to be picked up by a neophyte fly fisherman, God help him, because he'll come away quite confused.
I realize that the author of this book is regularly published in various fly fishing periodicals, but this book was just awful. Fair warning for anyone headed to fish the Southeastern coast of the US: you're better off going out with a guide or hanging around the local bait and tackle shop at 7 am or late in the evening if you want a good idea of where to fish, what to use, when to go, how to get there, and what to look for.

Eddie

02-12-2003, 06:39 PM

That's too bad. That series of guide books is really pretty good. They have one on the Keys now. I wonder if it is better(same publisher, different authors).